Breakfast is back, baby!

Back to school, back to work, back to routines…It’s also the perfect time of year to get back to what makes breakfast the bomb: The hearty hug of a farmhouse breakfast; that downtown, effortless cool of a bodega breakfast sandwich (or how about a frittata slider?); the Southern charm of cheesy grits; the new grab-‘em-fast breakfast bowls and don’t forget the sweeter side of breakfast (did someone say customizable cinnamon buns?)

Sodexo’s Test Kitchen crafts breakfast to students’ cravings

Reimagining college students’ food experience has been a major goal of Sodexo’s interaction-focused group of concepts, Test Kitchen. This summer at Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi colleges got training on Test Kitchen from Sodexo’s Rob Morasco, VP of Culinary Innovation, and Jennifer DiFrancesco, Director of Culinary Innovation. One standout detail of Test Kitchen is trading in hotel pans simmering with old standards for a fresher, customized interaction with premium offers and dynamic flavors.

These savory Belgium waffles from Bel Brands hits both sweet and savory notes.

“I think that the future of campus dining will look much different than it does today,” Morasco says. “It's not going to be a sea of food in pans ready for students when they arrive, but a much more ‘made for me’ approach.”

Training for Test Kitchen includes allowing students and dining staff to have their say in the recipe ideation process by collecting real-time evaluations. Two of the concepts of Test Kitchen are breakfast-forward: The Farmhouse Breakfast, featuring a bacon-cheddar or portabella-hashbrown breakfast bowls; and Slices and More, home of the topped to order cinnamon roll.

Related:11 bold new menu ideas for bringing back breakfast

Frittata sliders are a quick-but-fun option by Veggies Made Great.

Chefs taking part in the training were surprised to see just how big of a hit the topped to order cinnamon rolls were with the student taste testers, who reportedly loved coming up with their own sweet and/or savory topping combinations but were also really happy to get recommendations from the chefs on what would taste great together.

“Getting your meal crafted to your cravings each day makes it a memorable enhanced experience,” DiFrancesco adds. “As our future generations are normalized to this customized approach growing up, this is setting a new normal for campus dining.”

Training for Sodexo’s college Test Kitchen featured the sweet side of breakfast.

Universities set to see this program implemented in the fall include Loyola University, Dillard University, Nicholls State University, and Tulane to start.

K-12 breakfast is fast, flavorful and comes with coffee (over age 12, please!)

Boosting breakfast participation is part of the K-12 cafeteria makeovers done across the country by Ingenious Culinary Concepts, a school food consulting group led by Chief Innovator Kern Halls. According to Halls, the breakfast trends for K-12 to watch will be found in bowls and cups.

Custom cinnamon rolls were the “sleeper surprise” hit of a recent Sodexo college training course for Test Kitchen, a new collection of interactive, elevated concepts.

“Parfait cups are the perennial,” he says, “But for grab-and-go, getting off the bus, I think breakfast bowls will be really huge.”

Halls also predicts down-home Southern breakfast items—especially creatively topped biscuits—will be a big draw for kids choosing school breakfast.

At the recent School Nutrition Association (SNA) annual conference, we checked out some coffee trends for the K-12 world at the What’s In Your Coffee Bar session by Culinary Solution Centers LLC’s Lindsey Shoenfeld, RDN, and Vahista Ussery, MS, MBA, RDN, co-founders of To Taste Culinary Nutrition LLC. Here are a few highlights: